Why Colonies came to U.S. (Essay Sample)

British Colonization:
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During the 16th and 17th century colonists came to America for various multifaceted reasons. Some of the reasons included discomfort and peace instability in their countries of origin. For instance, there were cases of overpopulation in some settlement countries, religious persecutions and cases of abject poverty. Therefore, they came to America in search of economic prospects. Explorers had reported existence of opportunities. Capitalism in these areas could enable one to grow large plantations of sugar, cotton and undertake income generating activities. Religious people like Pilgrims and Puritans came to America to acquire autonomy to exercise their religious rights without interference from their governments (Middleton, & Lombard, 2011).
There were colonies that were unsuccessful while other succeeded. Roanoke colony is an example of a colony that failed. The late Sir Walter Raleigh and Late Sir Richard Grenville in their endeavour to take advantage of these economic opportunities sent colonist and ships to Roanoke at the coast of North Carolina. Phillip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe team was the first batch to be sent to explore Roanoke colony. They developed good relations with interior natives like Secotans and Croatians and went back to England with two Croatians namely Manteo and Wanchese. These two Croatians gave an overview of the political and geographical landscape of Roanoke. After acquiring this information Raleigh sent another batch that was spearheaded by Sir Richard Grenville. Grenville suffered various setbacks. Some of the setbacks included waiting long time for the remaining ships to arrive, lack of food and destruction of the village. Raleigh sent another new batch in 1587 that was spearheaded by John White to check the colonists and found that most of them had died. They also had arrived when bubonic plague had killed over 90% of the Native American inhabitants. They could not therefore, obtain the grounds to control this territory. Failure was also aggravated by the fact that the colonists had refused to integrate well with the natives (Middleton, & Lombard, 2011).
Jamestown colony is an example of the colonies that succeeded. The Virginia colony of London sent colonies to Peninsula at Jamestown, to establish a colony that could act as trading centre. Th